The newly merged property empire encompassing swathes of London’s Soho and Covent Garden is facing a bruising shareholder row over millions of pounds handed out in executive share awards.

Sky News understands that a number of major investors plan to vote against the remuneration report at the annual meeting of the newly formed Shaftesbury Capital in the coming months.

City investors are understood to be livid that bosses including Ian Hawksworth, its chief executive, saw share grants vest when the merger completed.

Shaftesbury Capital was formed from the merger of Capital & Counties Properties and Shaftesbury, creating a West End landlord which owns some of London’s landmark shopping and leisure destinations.

Mr Hawksworth ran Capco, which was the acquiring entity in the merger despite being smaller, making the vesting of its share awards unusual – and controversial during a cost-of-living crisis.

In Capco’s 2022 annual report, the company said the deal structure had been determined as the right one for shareholders.

“Whilst this structure may have resulted in only Shaftesbury’s share awards being triggered, this would have created an inequitable situation where two groups of employees were to be combined, but only the smaller company’s employees’ share awards would continue, under amended performance targets.

“However, Capco’s share plan rules permitted the Committee to treat the merger as equivalent to a takeover and therefore trigger the awards, creating equality of treatment, for all employees,” it said.

Read more:
Salad shortage and pub booze drive surprise leap in inflation
Price of some groceries has more than doubled in a year
Tesco to cut value of Clubcard reward scheme

A Shaftesbury Capital spokesman declined to comment, although a company insider said the vesting of the share awards had been fully disclosed in the deal prospectus.

He added that the deal had been supported by 97% of Capco shareholders, although he acknowledged that there had not been a separate vote on remuneration.

Related posts:

Branson plots $3bn merger to take Virgin Orbit on to US stock market Jaguar Land Rover swings to £302m loss as it counts cost of global chip shortages Climate, travel and tourism Rothermere on brink of £400m pension deal to take Daily Mail-owner private Don’t ask for big pay rises Bank of England governor suggests as it battles surging inflation Energy bills could see further increase in autumn, British Gas boss warns Punch-owners drink to £200m bid for pub chain Amber Taverns Musk open to ‘exceptional’ Twitter staff working from home as he outlines plans to reach one billion users BT to upgrade cost-savings target to £3bn as inflationary pressures bite Bank of England expected to unveil biggest interest rate rise since the 1980s later today BT warns of job cuts as it dials in £500m of additional cost savings Superdry hires City advisers to fashion cost-cutting plans